There is that I know of no domain naming committee that comes up with these names. There was of course a less demographic generation, "The Lost Generation," that wasn't really lost, unless you count stumbling out of Paris cafes at three in the morning and forgetting where you lived.
Don McLean in his song 'American Pie' tells us of "the generation lost in space." Again with the lost. There was the "Pepsi Generation," a Madison Avenue concept quite a few years ago that used the phrase to hawk Pepsi to that group on the beach jumping up and down for no reason at all, while looking good in their bathing suits, bikinis and hats.
I distinctly remember in high school a fellow student complaining of the English teacher who gave them the assignment of writing an essay on what it felt like to be part of that "Pepsi Generation." Considering that at point in our high school lives we we're probably 15-17 years old, I felt sorry for my friend. I was glad I wasn't in his class. I asked him if there was a contest involved.
Real estate listings in Manhattan used to brag that the apartment building they were trying to entice you to live was a "pre-war" building. This was the 60s, so pre-war was indisputably WWII. What the phrase meant, and was true, was that the building was constructed before WWII, and therefore did have bigger rooms and more sound proofing by virtue of the building material used. No sheet rock then.
I've looked up what the Web might tell me about the approximate age/year category of "The Millenials." Smartly, it is written is that there are no specific years that are hard-coded, so to speak, to generation designations. But, by the definition I read, the cast of Friends would not qualify as being young enough to a "Millenial." Just think.
Only one of my two kids could be considered a Millenial. The other is too old. She's back there with the cast of 'Friends,' which fittingly, was her favorite show.
I remember reading years and years ago something Russell Baker wrote about how all the people then on TV were a good deal younger than he was, especially in the commercials. I'm now probably about as old as he was when he wrote that, so if you stay awake, you'll encounter the same things.
The sales adage is "you can't sell anything to anyone over 50." How stupid. There are plenty of grey heads driving late model cars. There are few cars on the road that are 10 years old. There are plenty people driving over 50.
And how about pharmaceuticals? I happened to watch 20 minutes of CBS's 'Evening News' last night and was struck by how many consecutive commercials were from drug companies. Atrial fibrillation seems to be the latest category of ailments someone is taking aim at. Trying to get those who are already taking something for "a-fib" to switch to their "a-fib" product.
I don't really know how pervasive "a-fib" is. I don't know if it is more prevalent that "restless leg syndrome," but I do know my heart will flutter a bit when I consider going through Times Square and I realize Elmo over there might really be a suicide bomber from ISIS whose explosive vest is hidden by fake fur. There goes the intersection.
The A&E cable show 'Longmire' has been cancelled because the audience is too old. Well, I liked the show (so I guess they're right), about the widowed 50-something Wyoming sheriff who was still able to satisfy an attractive widowed ranch owner on the rustic living room table when the "moment was right." But, I guess, business is business.
But think of it. If print newspapers are on the rocks, so too might be the evening news. I've never liked televised news. It dwells on stories that if I were to encounter them in a newspaper, I'd just glance past them (manhunt in Virginia). But that's not the point. At that point in the day, whatever the networks are yakking about, it's not "news" anymore. At least not to the under-50 crowd. Thus, the ads for the population needing medication. The under-50s have already caught two sentences, and pictures, on the latest through the day on their phone. Their smartphone.
The age dividing line at this point is the phone. The cell phone. I read a review of Research in Motion's latest smartphone entry into the market, the "BlackBerry Passport." BlackBerry, as anyone who overhears these things, has been in trouble. The iPhone and Microsoft have buried them. And there they were, basically first with the keypad and everything. The last job I had, which was only three years ago, issued me an BlackBerry. I liked it, but hey, what did I know?
In yesterday's Wall Street Journal, the reporter, Joanna Stern writes a review of the freshly released BlackBerry device. First, she waxes rhapsodically about how attached she was to her first BlackBerry. You would think she wore it with her prom dress. The thumbnail sketch of Ms. Stern that accompanies the article clearly reveals she's a Millenial. Or, maybe not.
She basically buries the phone by telling us "the Passport has some neat tricks and longer battery life than the competition, but it's living in the past. It's not 2005 anymore." She quotes someone's reaction that it's a "deformed laptop."
But "not 2005!" That was nine years ago, and if Ms. Stern is already separating herself from that era, she just might have started to age past the entry point of the "The Millenials." I really don't know what generation she might really be in then. "X?"
I'm hardly against anyone who is younger, so long as they stay off the front lawn. We've seen the overhead pictures of the snake lines of people lining up outside an Apple store on Fifth Avenue. Lining up for a phone! "Ms. Stern tells us The BlackBerry Passport is available for $600 without a contract, and about $250 with one. That can't be cheap at twice the price.
As kids in the 50s we strung wire between two tin cans and hoped we could hear each other 30 feet away. We longed for walkie-talkies so we could tell each other where the bad kids were hiding that were looking to jump us.
There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that if I was a "Millenial," I'd be lining up for a phone somewhere too.
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